IWPR Publication

The Best and Worst State Economies for Women
by Institute for Women's Policy Research
(November 2006)

Women have made dramatic economic progress
throughout the United States, especially since
the 1960s. Yet, women have fared much better in
some states than in others, and in no state do women
fare as well economically as men. On several indicators,
women have experienced important gains in the
nearly two decades that the Institute for Women’s
Policy Research (IWPR) has been tracking these
data. For example, women are more likely than men
to be employed in managerial or professional jobs
and to have health insurance coverage. At the same
time, women still earn less, are less likely to have a
Bachelor’s or professional degree, or to own a business,
and are more likely to live in poverty than men
across the states. With median annual earnings of
$31,800, women employed full-time, year-round in
the United States still earn only 77.0 percent of what
men earn. Of all civilian women aged 16 and older,
only 59.2 percent are in the labor force, compared
with 71.8 percent of men.